You plug in your phone, you plug in your computer, so why not plug in your car? Electric cars are into the second generation and are not as risky to own anymore.
Electric cars have only been around for a few years according to the knowledge of most people. In reality, the electric car was first made back in the 1890’s along with the steam powered and internal combustion engines.
At first the electric car was more convenient than steam and combustion because they were easier to start and a little more efficient. Once the combustion engine was paired with an easier ignition, people became more interested in purchasing those vehicles. The combustion engine cars became the standard and every car manufacturer began investing money into developing the combustion engines.
The electric motor would have a few developments every now and then but not enough to make it a possible alternative. The battery in the electric motor had a small range and took long to charge and in a fast-paced world, that was inconvenient.
In 2009, President Obama announced a policy to push car companies to make cars that have a minimum fuel-efficiency standard of 35.5 miles-per-gallon. British government also announced that it will promote the purchase of electric vehicles by offering subsidies to the buyers. Later that year, the Department of Energy awards Ford, Nissan and Tesla $8 billion for the development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Only recently have electric cars begun to meet the convenience that people want. Fully electric vehicles like a Tesla can drive 300 miles on an eight-hour charge from a standard wall outlet, if there’s a Tesla Supercharger Station it can take less than two hours. Unfortunately, the cheapest Tesla is still around $40,000. In a few years as the electric cars become more available they will drop in price, industry experts predict.
Electric vehicles have good warranties on the batteries. Most car companies will replace the battery if there was total failure and some even offer a replacement of the battery has lost its range capacity. Chevrolet offer an 8-year/100,000 mile warranty for their all-electric vehicle the Chevy Bolt
When it comes to the maintenance of the vehicle, all that really needs to be replaced are the tires, brakes pads, and some air conditioning maintenance but it’s typically several years before having to replace any of these.
Benjamin Nead, a University of Arizona employee who has been following the electric car for many years, talked about his experiences as an EV owner. He owns a Mitsubishi I-MiEV, a small 5-door hatchback, which he has very high praises for. According to Nead, his EV car is less expensive car to operate than any normal car on the road.
Any time he is going to use his car, all he has to do is plug it in the night before and it’ll charge completely overnight. If he is in sudden need of a charging station, he can just pull up the PlugShare app on his phone and it’ll locate every charging station for him.
“Electric cars are the new trend,” Nead said “the batteries that power the vehicle will become cheaper and by 2023 most EV’s will become as affordable as gas cars.”
Alfredo Lio, a car salesman for O’Reilly Chevrolet in Tucson, says they have sold around 35 electric vehicles over the past five years. They haven’t really seen an increase in electric car sales, instead its been a steady six or seven cars per year.
“The customers that are looking to buy those electric cars have pretty much done the research on them so we just have to provide the car,” Lio said “its very hard to sway customers to buy electric cars and there’s no incentive for us to sell one so we just try to sell any car.”
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Octavio Lopez is a reporter for Arizona Sonora News, a service from the School of Journalism with the University of Arizona. Contact him at olopez24@email.arizona.edu